Christopher Hibbert
Christopher Hibbert was a wide-ranging historian writing mainly on 18th, 19th and 20th century British, Italian and French History. He also wrote splendid history-guide books to London, Venice, Florence and Rome as well as editing The Encylopaedia of London and The Encylopaedia of Oxford.
His biography of Elizabeth I, The Virgin Queen, was described by Alan Bennett in his diaries as ‘by far the best account of her that I have read’.
His final book, The House of Borgia, was described by the Sunday Times as having been written with ‘the verve, vitality and eye for a good quote that made him the most readable of all popular historians’.
He died in 2008.
